Interview parue dans le # 92 (mai 2002) du magazine britannique Dreamwatch. Spoilers BtVS S6.
Buffy writer/director and co-executive producer David Fury was an ideal candidate for a cameo role in the show's musical episode. Dreamwatch discovers how he learned to cut the mustard.
* * * * * * * *
David Fury sits in his office at Mutant Enemy and ponders the road that led him to dance around in front of a camera with a brightly coloured suit in his hand, extolling the virtues of a dry-cleaning service and successful mustard removal. Like fellow Buffy scribe Marti Noxon, he's a critically acclaimed writer who was more than up for a moment of silliness in the spotlight.
"Goodness, that was a thrill. Before I came to LA, I did a lot of musical stage-work with my sketch comedy group in New York and I reminded Joss of that when he was writing the musical episode [Once More With Feeling]. He'd already put a cameo in for Marti Noxon and so he put one in for me too. I was thrilled. I'm just sorry it's only for one line. It doesn't hurt having 20 dancers behind you having bright and colourful shirts to make it memorable! No question... it will definitely appear on the soundtrack - the full version with how the mustard got on the shirt and why I'm so upset about it! I already have my bootleg copy!
"I'd previously cameo-ed in Angel as a goat slayer/worrier as a favour to Tim Minear. He was supposed to be the other goat-slayer, but he chickened out! I was also 'the pizza guy' in Amber Benson's independent film Chance, so I' guess I'm doomed to represent the food groups... if you include goats in that too."
Like Tim Minear on Angel, Fury has risen through the ranks and, after writing several key episodes, now holds the title of co-executive producer. He quickly points out that the formation of story ideas and story arcs is something that everyone is involved with - the final word going to series creator Joss Whedon.
"Technically... all writers, when they come onto a show, are given a title based on experience. Every year you automatically get a promotion and new title. It doesn't necessarily mean anything other than a certain seniority and aspect of dues paid. In my case, I guess I'm afforded a certain bit of responsibility towards stories and helping there. I help lead story meetings when Joss or Marti are not around. Essentially, I'm just another part of the team."
Fury wrote the second half of Buffy's resurrection episode Bargaining. For months there had been speculation on just how the slayed slayer would re-enter the world. All at Mutant Enemy knew that the eyes of the fans, the network executives and critics would be on them. 'With a single bound, she was free...' just wouldn't work. Buffy's fan-base is articulate and demanding and they were certainly demanding a strong resolution to that thorny problem.
"The challenge was something that we were prepared for because we knew early in season five where it was going to end and that we would continue after that," Fury explains. "We had a long time to consider what it was all going to mean and Joss was determined that Buffy's resurrection would not be a clean and easy thing. It was never going to be: 'She's back, so everything is back to the regular happy-go-lucky norm now!' He wanted there to be a huge consequence to her having died and being brought back through magic. She should be paying it for a long, long time... possibly through the duration of the series. Resurrecting a character should never be done easily. People's concern that we were going to do it as a dream, as the Buffy-bot... None of these would have meant anything. We had to play it out for all its dramatic worth."
If Bargaining was dramatic, it simply foreshadowed a change in tone for the series and its ensemble cast. A new network meant a new energy and UPN seemed happy to allow the creators to take some chances. Certainly this year has been daring, controversial and more than a little sexual. If the WB had balked at a Willow/Tara kiss, UPN hardly blinked at the barely off-screen actions that accompanied the end of Tara's beautiful You Make Me Complete solo in the musical episode. That said, however, even they asked for a few seconds of footage to be trimmed from the violent sexual encounter between the soulless Spike and the world weary Buffy.
"Our characters have gone from being teenagers and sophomores in High School and into adulthood. As they've grown up, the audience has and so has the show," notes Fury. "Again, I have to stress that it's a matter of what Joss feels is right, that we should be going to this darker and more adult places. That's because we've already explored all the other aspects of an innocent group of people.
"As they get older and wiser, we're going to be a little more direct with sexuality," Fury continues. "When we deal with a complex situation like Spike and Buffy it just goes to how much the show has grown from the original love story between Buffy and Angel. Buffy and Spike is much more complex, it's not so clean. It's not a case of black and white. It's not true love, it's something very messy and somewhat ugly and repellent to some people - just like life. Despite the fact that we still involve demons, vampires and our own mythology, there are more elements of general life that we're trying to tell."
David Fury, like many of the people responsible for Buffy, often visits the internet to discuss the show with its fans. Before the liaison happened on-screen he argued against any potential Buffy/Spike interplay, commenting that it would be like someone developing relationship with a serial killer. After all, Spike doesn't have a soul. He is a vampire held solely in check by a chip in his head. The reason fans love Spike is because he isn't held by the moral code of the other characters. So, now that it has happened, has Fury changed his mind?
"I got into soooo much trouble for those comments!" he laughs. "I don't take back anything I said. My convictions about Spike and Buffy still hold true. By the same token, that's not to say that people don't write to serial killers and involve themselves with unsavoury characters. We're not dealing with 'a message' here or trying to put across a political agenda or philosophy. We're just telling stories. The fact is that people make bad mistakes and choose unwisely in a lot of facets in their lives. Buffy is no different. She has always been struggling with being a real girl with super-powers. She is going to be going to places that may seem un-heroic to some people, but that is the nature of human condition.
"It makes an interesting story. She could be a goody-goody hero who simply treats Spike like the vampire he is and goes fighting evil, but we're trying to deal with more complex issues now."
Could Buffy be treading a road first journeyed by Faith? When I point out that a friend in LA had commented that we should forget this season's villains - Dark Willow or the 'Three Wankers of the Apocalypse' - and look to Buffy as being her own worst enemy this season, Fury pauses. "... I think that's a very good point and quite true," he agrees.
However, though the angst-factor is likely to be cranked-up as the season progresses, Fury is quick to say that he believes his forte to be more in the comedy or the relationships we see. "I'm always more comfortable doing the comedy. There are people much better at the angst than I am, but ultimately that's the stuff that most of the fans like. They seem much more interested in the personal relationships and drama of the show, much more than the horror and comedy aspects," he admits. "I don't shy away from it and often enjoy it. At best, though, I feel like I'm challenging Joss or Marti when I'm writing the angst. Sometimes I surprise myself and write beautiful angsty scenes, but I'm always going to mean more towards the comedy."
And what of the future? The series will see the return of some familiar faces and will continue to explore new dangers. But does David know where the season (and beyond) is heading?
"We've already talked a lot about next season. We know about a large amount next season, actually. We try to plan ahead and arc out our seasons and beyond, which is apparently unusual for a lot of television shows. I think one of the appeals of the show is that we do know where we're going and where we're going to end up. I know how the season will end and how the next will begin - all the major events," he says.
However, Fury refuses to be drawn on specifics. "Knowing that, it helps inform everything we write. I'll be writing one more episode this season. I guess you could say that this season of Buffy will get darker, then lighter, then darker again. There is definitely more darkness to come. There will be more of a storm before there is a hint of a rainbow."
Away from Buffy, Fury will be working on Whedon's new series Firefly and hopes to be involved in the long-mooted Giles spin-off, though he admits that "it seems to be in limbo at the moment."
For a man who originally journeyed to LA to become a comedy actor and create material for himself, the acclaimed writer simply shrugs and smiles. "I was 'discovered', not for what I'd intended to be," he admits, "but I'll take it where I can get it."